May is Sexual Assault Prevention Month

May is Sexual Assault Prevention Month

Previously, SAPM was Sexual Assault Awareness Month, but we need to push forward. We need to take our awareness and put it into action. Taking action and using our knowledge of the realities of gender-based violence in our community and beyond is key in changing the culture. Creating a culture of enthusiastic consent means we need to really understand the extent to which rape culture appears in our day to day lives.

Rape culture occurs when a society or environment’s prevailing social attitudes have the effect of normalizing or trivializing sexual assault and abuse. It is our hope that we can change this to a culture of enthusiastic consent which is a culture which normalizes the action of asking for consent, and respecting whatever responses are given. It affirms that each individual has bodily autonomy and maintains that boundaries (a person’s right to choose what is comfortable to them) should be respected unconditionally.